Blue Point

A colt by Blue Point topped the first edition of the Aktem Breeze-Up Sale at Maisons-Laffitte, selling to Marco Bozzi for €50,000 on Wednesday. Sold as lot 17B from Knockanglass Stables, the son of French listed heroine Firebird Song (Invincible Spirit) is a half-brother to Mehmas filly Burguesinha, a listed winner in France. G3 Sirenia Stakes victor Symbol Of Strength (Kodiac) is under the second dam, while Group 1 winner and sire Territories is under the third dam. Lot 24, a colt by Kameko, caught the eye of Michael Keady...

1.12 Navan, Mdn, 2yo, 5f 180yT TANTARDINI (No Nay Never) makes his racecourse bow in the maiden won 12 months ago by stablemate Gstaad and is Wayne Lordan's pick of the Ballydoyle duo. The fourth foal out of the Sun Chariot, Falmouth and Prix Rothschild winner Roly Poly (War Front) and grandson of the four-times Group 1-winning  Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Misty For Me (Galileo) from the family of U S Navy Flag is joined by Sergei Diaghilev (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), a full-brother to the triple Group-placed Endorsement.  ...

3.05 Navan, Listed, 4yo/up, 14fT SCANDINAVIA (Justify) is the day's big news as he returns for Ballydoyle in a race used for several of their leading stayers such as Kyprios, Order Of St George and Yeats. Last year's St Leger and Goodwood Cup hero meets the Leger fifth Carmers (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), Fiona Carmichael's Queen's Vase winner who remains unexposed over these staying trips.   1.55 Navan, Mdn, 2yo, 5f 180yT WEST OF EDEN (IRE) (No Nay Never) is the chosen representative from Ballydoyle in a maiden that has...

   In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the victory of Indigo Woods at Fair Grounds. Blue Is the Colour Larry Rodgers and Coast Racing's Indigo Woods (Blue Point) prevailed by a half-length and maintained her perfect record in the Allen Black Cat LaCombe Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds on March 7 (video). A winner of a Churchill maiden in October, the Brendan Walsh trainee was bred by Tinnakill House. The 10th foal out...

Galileo and Dubawi, two titans of the sport whose fates have been so entwined for the past two decades that the marrying of their superior bloodlines to one day give us a champion sire was perhaps as inevitable as it is satisfying for us bloodstock nuts. On 12 occasions, in 2008 and then every year between 2010 and 2020, Galileo topped the end-of-year sires' table in Britain and Ireland. On four of those occasions Dubawi filled the runner-up spot, before the Darley stalwart finally enjoyed his day in the sun...

For this first of four parts of our annual Value Sires series in Europe, we will be dealing with the elite tier of stallions standing for a fee in excess of £50,000, which is approximately €57,000. The names in this bracket don't change that much, except for when a grandee retires or a young upstart bounces his way in. In 2025, we lost an increasingly prolific member of this cohort when Wootton Bassett died in Australia from pneumonia at the age of 17. The consequences of his passing will doubtless...

Dubawi will remain at a fee of £350,000 for the 2026 breeding season while his son Night Of Thunder, the champion sire-elect in Britain and Ireland, has had his fee raised to €200,000. The fees released for Darley's 23 stallions in Europe include four newcomers. The treble Group 1 winner Rosallion is introduced at £40,000 at Dalham Hall Stud, where he will stand alongside his relative and fellow Group 1 winner Inisherin, whose fee is £12,500. Also new to the roster is Shadow Of Light, winner of both the G1...

Rosallion and Inisherin, both Group 1-winning grandsons of Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum's blue hen Reem Three (Mark Of Esteem), will join the Darley roster at Dalham Hall Stud for the 2026 breeding season. Trained by Richard Hannon, Rosallion retires as the winner of five of his 13 starts and over £1.6 million in career earnings. Beaten just once in four starts as a two-year-old, when his victories included the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at ParisLongchamp, he returned the following year with a runner-up finish in the G1 2,000 Guineas...

TATTERSALLS, NEWMARKET - Almost 200 million gns changed hands between Book 1 and 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale but there was no sign of the money drying up at Park Paddocks as Book 3 got off to a rip-roaring start with turnover climbing by a massive 19% to 7,680,500gns. Whitsbury Manor Stud was rewarded for targeting the Book 3 with four horses selling for 371,000gns - which included a 160,000gns Havana Grey colt that was only knocked off his perch by the last lot into the ring, a...

We should have seen it coming really. Night Of Thunder burst onto the scene in 2019 to be champion first-season sire with seven stakes winners to his name. Not all leading freshmen go on to put themselves into contention for champion sire honours, of course, but six years later this is exactly what the prolific Night Of Thunder has done, and he looks almost certain now to follow the achievement of his own sire Dubawi, who was champion in 2022. Dubawi, who turns 24 in January, took longer to get...

KILDARE, IRELAND - John Stewart made a welcome first visit to the Goffs Orby Sale on Monday and, despite taking a little time to acclimatise to the European style of bidding - with auctioneer Nick Nugent partly to blame - the Resolute Racing man spent €1,555,000 on four lots, headed by the sale-topping Blue Point colt at €675,000. Stewart rolled his sleeves up pretty early in the session. Sitting directly in front of Nugent in the seats below the rostrum, he spent €230,000 on the McCracken Farms-consigned Ghaiyyath filly [lot...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-bred horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Friday's Observations features a high-priced sale graduate in the Amo colours. 4.00 Haydock, Novice, 2yo, 6f 212yT POKER (IRE) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) debuts nearly a year after making headlines at Tattersalls October Book 1 when selling for 4.3million gns, a record price for a colt offered at the sale....